6.  The applicants were born in 1969 and 1967 respectively. They are currently serving prison sentences.
7.  In October 1998 the applicants were arrested and remanded in custody on suspicion of several counts of murder, robbery and other crimes. Both applicants alleged that the policemen had ill-treated them and forced to confess.
8.  The applicants partly confessed to several criminal offences. Both of them had lawyers at the preliminary stage of investigation. The applicants did not complain about the alleged ill-treatment during the pre-trial investigation.
9.  Between January 1998 and March 1999 the investigation carried out a significant number of forensic expert examinations. On 17 April 1999 the investigator familiarised the first applicant with decisions to appoint all these examinations and with their conclusions. The first applicant refused to get acquainted with the examinations and stated that he would read them together with the whole case file at the end of the investigation.
10.  On an unspecified date the investigation was completed and the case was referred to the Chelyabinsk Regional Court for trial.  The trial court was composed of Mr S., the presiding judge, and Ms G. and Ms U., lay judges. The first applicant unsuccessfully asked for a trial by jury.
11.  The first applicant admitted, partly or fully, his guilt on five counts of aggravated murder and robbery, one of attempted murder, unlawful possession of weapons, forgery of documents and several other crimes. He pleaded not guilty on two other counts. Apart from the first applicant’s confession, the trial court relied on statements of co-accused made both during the pre-trial investigation and the trial, witnesses, documentary evidence, numerous records of investigative actions, including a record of inspection of the first applicant’s flat, during which the police had found a number plate for a car, allegedly supposed to be used for robbery, and expert examinations. The first applicant, however, challenged the results of the forensic medical examination of the body of Mr S., one of the victims, claiming that the examined body had not been found in the place where he had committed the murder of Mr S.; therefore it belonged to another person.
12.  Out of seven episodes of murder, robbery and unlawful possession of weapons, incriminated to the second applicant, he partly admitted his guilt as regards robbery and the murder of Mr S. He pleaded not guilty with respect to the remainder of the episodes. However the trial court found him guilty as charged. The court relied on depositions of the co-defendants, including the first applicant, the second applicant’s confession made during the pre-trial investigation, documentary evidence, video recordings of investigative actions with the applicant and his co-defendants, and results of forensic examinations.
13.  The second applicant requested that the trial court hear Mr I., who could allegedly have confirmed his alibi. The court noted that the authorities had tried to establish Mr I.’s whereabouts and had checked the address indicated by the second applicant. It was established that such a person had never lived in the Chelyabinsk Region, contrary to what had been alleged by the second applicant.
14.  The first applicant and co-defendants complained to the trial court that the policemen had beaten them during the investigation. The court thoroughly examined these complaints and dismissed them as unsubstantiated. It appears that the second applicant did not make a similar complaint.
15.  On 8 December 2000 the trial court heard the final pleas of the second applicant and co-defendants. The first applicant refused to speak because his lawyer was not present.
16.  On 27 December 2000 the first applicant did not feel well and refused to pronounce his final plea. On the same day the Chelyabinsk Regional Court delivered judgment. It found the applicants guilty of having committed and abetted several aggravated murders and robberies, unlawful possession and theft of weapons, organising a criminal gang, and forgery of documents. The trial court sentenced the first applicant to life imprisonment and the second applicant to twenty-five years’ imprisonment; and issued confiscation orders in respect of the applicants’ property.
17.  The applicants appealed against the judgment of 27 December 2000. In their voluminous statements of appeal they challenged, inter alia, the composition of the bench that had given the judgment. Whilst the Lay Judges Act allowed lay judges to be called once a year for a maximum period of fourteen days or for as long as a specific case lasted, the lay judges Ms G. and Ms U. had been engaged earlier in the course of at least one other trial in 2000.
18.  On 18 October 2002 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the judgment on appeal. The appeal court noted that there were no grounds for quashing the judgment of 27 December 2000 as the trial court had examined the applicants’ case thoroughly and without any bias. With respect to the composition of the bench the court noted that the applicant’s complaint was unsubstantiated as “no lists of lay judges had been formed at the moment of examination of the case”.
19.  On 5 August 2005 a deputy Prosecutor General submitted a request for supervisory review (надзорное представление) to the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. He requested that the judgments of 27 December 2000 and 18 October 2002 be quashed, having referred to the Court’s conclusion in the case of Posokhov v. Russia (no. 63486/00, ECHR 2003-IV). The deputy Prosecutor General emphasised that Ms G. and Ms U. had sat in court in several other cases in 2000, in breach of section 9 of the Lay Judges Act. Thus, the applicants’ case had been examined by a bench with an unlawful composition, which led to the quashing of the judgment pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 381 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
20.  On 17 January 2007 the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected the Prosecutor’s request for supervisory review. The Presidium acknowledged that Ms G. and Ms U. had sat in court in other cases in 2000; however it found that lay judges sitting in court more than once a year was not in itself sufficient to challenge the legitimacy of the composition of the bench, as the above lay judges had been authorised by law to serve in an unlimited number of cases. According to the Supreme Court, a limitation set out in Section 9 of the Lay Judges Act served to protect the rights of those lay judges who wished to refuse to serve repeatedly within one year; however this limitation could not be considered a ground to declare the composition of the bench unlawful.
21.  The Presidium also noted that one of the co-defendants had already been released and thus a new examination of the case could significantly impair his situation. In such circumstances quashing the final judgment would constitute a breach of the principle of legal certainty inherent in the Convention.